We had our first runthrough of Carmen Monday and it was mostly OK. I have everything memorized except the end of the Act 2 duet and Act IV. If necessary I can write the words to Act IV on a piece of paper and stick on the back of the "death" tarot card. I have a set of tarot cards - that's the pagan part of me. I can certainly be spot on with the musical entrances.
As for vocal issues, I kinda sorta maybe can get up to that B flat (formerly a B natural) at the end of the "Seguidilla," but unless I let out a hideous yowl no one will care. Otherwise there are only three A flats to worry about, which are definitely part of my comfortable singing range. The hardest one is at the end where she sings "No, no, no" and the last one is an A flat . For me the hardest thing is always attacking a note like that off the cuff, although historically I can always do this up to an A unless I don't use proper support (I call it panic and freeze).
Leaving all that aside, I know I really make this role come alive. Well, I'm hot, and I'm a drama queen. That's all there is to it. That's why I am not ready to give up on opera yet, even though church music is in a much more manageable range. The tenor, whom I really enjoy working with, is also a stage director, so we really click in making this drama work. He told me to go to a prop store and buy a retractable knife so that we could really do the last act justice.
As for the second half of this post's title, as people know, I have ongoing problems with my sinuses. Since I have been drinking a lot of water and not having any citric acid, I have stopped clearing my throat, but my sinuses still drain all the time. But now I think it's more than just an allergic reaction to something, because I woke up Monday with aches (which I had - perhaps mistakenly - thought was the result of sleeping at my partner's on the bed that is piled with newspapers, etc.). Tuesday I was OK but yesterday I was really achey, and had chills, and had the kind of sinus blockage that you get with a cold. It did not interfere with my singing, thank goodness. I looked at the Neti pot instructions and they said I could use it "numerous times" if I thought I was getting a cold, so that is what I did. I am feeling a little better. I just have to get through the second runthrough tonight (I will warn the tenor not to get too close), and get through Saturday, which is the funeral I for the violinist, which I had mentioned. The choir is singing two anthems and I am in a solo women's quartet singing an arrangement of the 23rd Psalm (in German) by Schubert. I have sung it before (the second soprano part) but last time it was in a group of 8. After that, if needs be I can be quiet until the Sunday of the concert (May 4), although it probably won't come to that.
No comments:
Post a Comment